jesse5eom

I want to lower my car as low as possible without replacing my stock shocks. My car has a big fender gap. Tein s tech has lots of good feedbacks.... Do I need to upgrade my camber kit for having a drop of 1.9"F and 1.7"R if I use Tein? I want to prolong my tires as much as possible

SIRIUS VTEC

I wouldn't recommend doing that on stock struts because it'll throw the angle of your tires off...but since you're considering a camber kit anyway I'm not sure how that'll work. I had springs on my stock struts on my first 96 coupe. They slowly started squatting and eating away at my tires. I was forced to change tires very often. The car was too low I took it to an alignment shop and they told me only thing that would fix it was a camber kit at that point so IDK this was back in 2005. If I were u I would try different avenues. If money's the issue just save up a bit more and get a decent set up maybe some eibachs, megans, fnf those aren't too badly though i'm not sure of the quality, that's what I'm trying to figure out.

from what I hear stock struts aren't meant to handle the load of a lowered car, not exactly sure why though.

I even searched an got you a couple quotes from some forums.

QUOTES:

-Any aftermarket spring will stress out the stock shocks because springs and shocks are designed for one another. Many people here have ran stock shock and aftermarket lowering spring with no problems. If you ask me, I call it ghetto. Buy a an adjustable coil over setup or if you do not have that kind of money, buy HFP spring/shock combo, else save your money.

-i say with any combo, 30-40k miles seems to be the limit for stock shocks

-when you lower your car u should get camber arms, but my friend works at firestone and did my alignment on skunk2 springs which is supposed to be a 2'' drop. he said i dont need a camber kit but i should get one... if not i just have to rotate my tires nd get alignments every 2.5-3k miles ish... but im planning on purchasing a camber kit eventually cant afford new tires =/

-If you get shorter springs, your factory shocks will be under a lot of stress because they'll be operating a much shorter throw than they were designed for. As a result, they will normally fail much quicker. The stock shocks will essentially be overloaded.

You don't have to get a full coilover setup, but I would definitely get a set of aftermarket shocks that are designed to work with the shorter springs.

-look at it this way the springs on the car are ment to hold the weight of the car and allow the susp to compress and rebound. the shock is added to the suspension to dampen the speed of compression and rebound. If you put a lowering spring on a stock shock the stiffer shorter spring can overload the stock shocks abbility to dampen the movement leading to a bouncy ride. As already posted depending on the amount of drop the stock shock can be to long and will be through most of its range of travel this can lead to bottoming out the shock and damaging it. On older gen civics this was one of the major causes for subframe damage when running larger dia rear swaybars.. Can you put a lowering spring on a stock shock and run it yes the only question is what type of ride are you looking for. Is it better to match high pro shock with the lowering spring yes.

COURTESY OF 8TH GEN

powerbygood

Evening guys! Just got a warning for no front license plate.. Now, I gotta find a creative way to show it without making the front end looking ugly haha.

As for lowering your car. I suggest just saving up for good ones instead of trying to look cool with cheap springs. I was on ebay springs for a while and man..... Those were horrible... Do it right the first time and save up. I think the cheapest coilover is the FnF, but if you save another 50 bucks you can get progress. Currently on progress and its awesome. Almost like stock at my height.

battle951sedan

iTrader: (4)

i think it goes without saying that once u lower a car, an alignment should follow.
toe and camber eats away at the tires. hell, tires get eaten up regardless but between the 2, gotta take care of the toe first if u do not have a camber kit yet.

battle951sedan

iTrader: (4)

almost 5yrs now. but been messing with 96-00 civics for 10yrs and counting. had 3 hatchbacks and 2 sedans.
waiting to own a coupe (for the right price )
i call em oldie pics coz i haven't had new decent ones in awhile

DOMAN!EJ8

Probably need to replace the whole axle

Zoot what rear visor is that? Been looking for a rear visor that is straight. That doesn't curve out

Sir Ash

iTrader: (2)

So I replaced my lower ball joint with OEM ones, upgraded my front calipers to an Si, painted the knuckles, front and rear calipers, replaced pads and rotors on all four corners, went to Autozone, O'Reilly, Pepboys, and Monument car parts to find axles. Now that I have all the parts I've been working on my car for 2 days now and I've been staying up late (as you can see) so I can get Sir Ash back on the road. It hasn't move from our driveway for about 3 weeks now. Now that I am almost done, the last thing I had to do was put the new axles on and as I was doing so I broke the rubber seal on my new LBJ!!! Arrrggghhh! Now I have to wait until Monday to order new OEM LBJ from Honda because they are close on Sundays. Lesson learned, when putting on new axles remove the knuckle from the LCA to have more room for the new axle because there is no way you can stick the axles in there without doing so. I hope I didn't mess up the new axles. I'm tired. Time to go to sleep.

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

Great attitude, Ash. Good luck, brother.

battle951sedan

iTrader: (4)

a ball joint/tie rod extractor tool is ur friend(not the fork type). harbor freight has em in different sizes. but be careful when using it. gotta watch for mushrooming/smashing the bottom/threaded part. i usually give the arms a couple whacks and then proceed to using the tool.

Onsite EJ8

hello everyone the thread has been moving pretty quick, more clean sedans now
just installed oem visors and restored the headlights and what a difference enjoy

MurderedEK

Just bought it a week ago just want to clean it up drop it a little more and get new wheels, new front and rear bumpers, headlights and tail lights and rewrap the head liner. Put the lip on the day i got it home.

Sir Ash

iTrader: (2)

Thanks Mike.
Jay I used the ratchet and jack method

Okay guys, I checked the LBJ on the other side and it also had a tear, grease was seeping out the LBJ. Now is this supposed to be normal when replacing LBJ? On the passenger side I understand why it could have tore the boot because I was moving the knuckles around while the LBJ was mounted on the LCA, but on the driver side, all I did was mount the LBJ to the LCA and tightened it according to torque specs. I haven't even tried to move the knuckles around to insert the new axles and found out the the boot of the LBJ has a small tear already Should I order new LBJs or ignore the tear and continue with finishing my car? I'm frustrated at the same time fulfilled because I'm doing everything on my own and learning through out the whole process.

TIA everyone

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

Maybe replace the boot?

Some grease can come out of the tip, but not anywhere else. When you tighten the arm to it, the boot squishes. No grease should come out from anywhere other than the tip and only when your squishing it the first time. The boot is held on with a clip, see if you can take one off. They're already bad if they're torn. Experiment. Ball joints are too expensive to just throw in the towel. Maybe even a Autozone boot or something.

Sir Ash

iTrader: (2)

Oh yeah. Why haven't I thought of that I need more sleep. Thanks Mike.

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

Get some rest. Come back with a fresh set of eyes. I am curious to see how you fix it, keep us updated. So cool that you're doing this, Ash. Takes some guts to do it. Most people just pay and stay ignorant. Props my friend.

battle951sedan

iTrader: (4)

when u bought those ball joints, were they ready at hand or u had to wait?
coz those might have been sitting out for awhile at where u bought them long enough for the rubber boot to dry out and manifest cracks...

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

Looking fly, Toy!

Welcome, Murdered. Any pics of your murdered EK?

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

They should have come in sealed bags and that rubber is awesome. It lasts a super long time under crazy stress.

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

Phi, the OEM lisc. plate bracket is your friend. I love mine.

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

Stock shocks on lowering springs takes a giant range of the strut travel and eliminates it. It then uses a small range of the shock which is near its compression limit and over works the plunger in that area. Instead of long sweeping plunges, you get small fast plunges which are more like vibrations that eventually push the seals out and allow fluid to escape. It's important to make note that the stock shock is operating in a near limit portion of its travel. Stock struts on lowering spring will always prematurely fail. Always.

Any camber kit will help. Some are better than others. Alignment is one of the most critical safety and performance areas of the car. Do not neglect it. Always align with proper specs. Always.

Sir Ash

iTrader: (2)

I ordered them on eBay from a Honda parts store in Ohio. They were sealed and they may be old, idk. I will contact the store tomorrow and ask if they can do an exchange or something.



Old vs New



Passenger side



Driver side

portfl0w

iTrader: (1)

Bummer! Swap them boots! Anything will do. I would buy a cheap set of balljoints and swap.

flippy_ek

sunny weather so i took a few more shots








Acura EL cluster, yeah i know its from an auto but i couldn't say no!

DOMAN!EJ8

for the axles, only the right side clicks, but both sides are ripped, can i just replace the right whole axle and replace the cv boot on the left?

powerbygood

GAG! Anyone in norcal know any good alignment shops that does lower cars? Also, not so expensive hahaha. Just got back from one and I didn't clear the ramp .

edit:
Damn flippy that is one clean *** car :O.

Lawrence - Damn, lucky you changed it. Looks horrendous.